![]() The pilots type data into their Flight Management Computer (FMC), and during flight the system calculates positioning with the data it receives from satellites, GPS, inertial navigation, and radio beacons.Īn important part is the Controller Pilot Data Link Communications (CPDLC), which improves navigation, communication, monitoring, and traffic flow by using satellite data links, with full coverage over oceans. Navigation – including GPS, inertial navigation, and traditional radio beacons such as VOR – is incorporated in the autopilot system and controlled by another integrated part of the navigation system. ![]() In today’s modern aircraft, all systems are integrated under the Flight Management System. Russia has its own GPS system called GLONASS, and soon China and the EU will have their own GPS satellites in operation. Today the standard is GPS, originally developed in the 1960s to satisfy the navigational needs of the US military. ![]() That also spelled the end for navigators, who had until this point been indispensable. This system continually calculated the plane’s position independently of radio beacons or other equipment. The navigation capability of today’s smartphones, with their built-in Global Positioning System (GPS), would make 1950’s navigators drop their jaws, but their pioneering work bore fruit in 1960 when the jets started flying the Arctic route.įixed radio beacons were rare in the Arctic, but by using ground-based pairs of radio transmitters that broadcast similar signals at identical intervals, the navigators could plot the route according to the time difference between the signals – a method that formed the basis of the LORAN system.īy the time SAS upgraded its fleet with Douglas DC-10s, navigation was done with the help of the Inertial Navigation System, which used accelerometers and motion sensors that detected the slightest movement of the aircraft. To be able to steer the right course at these high latitudes, navigators had to develop new tools, such as a high-precision polar gyro that made it possible to chart a route using a grid map that had been specially designed for use in the Arctic. ![]() The principal method was astronavigation, in which the sun, moon, and stars were used to determine position. In 1952, when the SAS made the historic first flight between the United States and Scandinavia via the Arctic, navigation was a major challenge. ![]()
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